


Hope For Them Yet

by DragonThistle



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Pre-show, cute things to rot your teeth out, little kid Pines Twins, meeting their great uncle for the first time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-13
Updated: 2014-10-13
Packaged: 2018-02-21 01:03:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2449592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonThistle/pseuds/DragonThistle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pre-Show. Stanford Pines did not care for children. But when he met his great niece and nephew, he changed his mind. A little bit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hope For Them Yet

Stanford Pines did not care for children.

He just didn't.

But the first time he'd met his great niece and nephew, he changed his mind. A little bit.

The boy kept hiding behind his parents' legs, peering out from behind his father's slacks with wide, frightened eyes. Any time he made eye contact with anyone, he'd close his eyes and hide again. And no amount of coaxing from his mother or father seemed to get him to move.

The girl on the other hand was everywhere. She took one look at Stan and promptly attached herself to his leg with the all the ferocity of a python. Stan shook his leg and tried to peel her off but she refused to let go, even when he prodded her with his 8-ball cane.

Her parents just laughed and said, "It means she likes you. Mabel, honey, let go of your great uncle Stan. He has work to do."

Dipper and Mabel. The Pines Twins.

"Why the heck did you name the kid Dipper?" Stan blurted out and the kid had blushed a brilliant shade of pink before hiding again (this time behind his mother's legs).

"Oh, it's just a nickname." They told him, reaching down to fuss with the kid's messy brown hair, "He has a birthmark here, on his forehead, in the shape of the constellation. When Mabel started recognizing stars, she started calling him that and the name's stuck."

"Mmmoooommmmm!" Dipper whined in embarrassment, ducking his parents' hands and patting his hair down to hide his forehead. When he realized he had left the shelter of their legs, he blanched and hid again.

Stan watched him which made the kid shrink back even more. What a wuss. No bite in him at all. His sister must have gotten it all. And given the way she was tearing around the Mystery Shack, planting glittery, neon stickers on everything she could reach, he didn't doubt it. 

"Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Stan!" She shouted one morning at breakfast, bouncing up and down in her seat, "Grunkle Stan, do you really have a jackelope? Can I see it? Can I see it? Did you catch it yourself? ARE UNICORNS FOR REAL!?"

"Mabel, sit down. Table manners. Indoor voices." Said her father and Mabel flopped back into her seat, still grinning eagerly with a mouthful of frightfully crooked teeth.

"Uh," Stan glanced from Mabel to Dipper. The boy was looking at him curiously, maybe not with the eagerness of his sister but his interest was definitely caught. Stan found himself at a crossroads of either lying to his niece and nephew and getting them caught up in all kinds of trouble in the future or telling them the truth and destroying their childhood fantasies.

"It's a secret!" He said a little too loudly and dove back into his breakfast with gusto. When he looked up again, Mabel seemed to have distracted herself with making a war (pony farm?) between the sugar packets. Dipper, on the other hand, was squinting at Stan with a slightly suspicious look about him.

"What d'ya want, kid?" Stan grunted at him. Dipper squeaked in fright and almost fell out of his seat trying to avoid his great uncle's gaze.

Stan wondered if he was doing this kid thing right. Maybe he needed a nicer approach. Like magic tricks. Yeah, kids liked magic tricks, right?

He practically cornered Dipper that afternoon between tours at the Shack. The kid looked tiny, curling in on himself, watching his great uncle warily. He was a nervous, twitchy thing and Stan crouched down to his level (he was still bigger), holding up his hands,

"Easy, Dips, don't wet yourself. Wanna see something amazing?"

"A-amazing?" Dipper murmured, nearly pulling his shirt over his head as he tried to hide in it.

"Yeah! Check it out! Nothin' up my sleeve, nothin' up my sleeve…" Stan reached behind the kid's ear and withdrew his hand, holding a quarter, "Ta-da! There was a quarter in your ear!"

Dipper's eyes widened as he gaped at the coin. Nailed in, Stan thought. Then the kid let out an almighty shriek and backed into the wall. He bounced off, tried to run, tripped over his undone shoelaces, and scrambled away as fast as he could,

"MMMMOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!"

Well that didn't work. Who knew kids could be scared of simple quarter tricks. There was definitely something wrong with that Dipper kid; too jumpy, always looking over his shoulder. If he wasn't clinging to his parents then he was clinging to his sister.

Mabel didn't seem to mind her brother tagging along with her everywhere, even if the kid was a wet blanket. She bounced around the Shack and the yard, trailing glitter glue and gel pens, getting excited about the tiniest things. She made a huge effort of involving her brother and Dipper even opened up when they were alone together. But he clammed up the second someone else came by, even if it was his mother or father. Whatever the kid's problem was, he didn't have it with his twin sister.

Stan got along perfectly well with Mabel, even if her boundless energy wore him down. She asked him the craziest questions which he got quite good at answering, either by telling an elaborate story or by slipping away from answering all together. She drew pictures with crayons and markers and glitter (and sometimes coaxed her twin to do the same when he wasn't poking his nose into the hidden corners of the Shack) and hung them on Stan's fridge without permission. She played with his handyman Soos and together they built race cars out of old boxes, decorated with too much glitter and sloppily painted flames. They even managed to get Dipper to race with them and, wow, that kid could actually laugh? It was the first time Stan had actually really seen Dipper smile.

He let the kids have their way, pretty much gave them free reign. He was determined to be the cool great uncle, an unspoken challenge he had to meet for some unknown reason. He didn't care what the kids did on the property as long as they didn't go out into the woods or destroy any of his merchandise.

But when he found sparkles and a big smiley face sticker on his cornicorn display, well, he had to finally put his foot down.

He found the twins in the attic space they were sharing with their parents, sprawled on the floor and coloring. Mabel was making all sorts of noises and swinging her arm wildly, there was marker all over her hands and some on her face. In contrast, Dipper was laying quietly on his stomach on the floor, tongue between his teeth, concentrating hard on what appeared to be a drawing of a car with very big exhaust pipes. Or it was a dragon with two heads and wheels instead of legs. It was hard to tell for sure.

Stan walked across the room towards them and stood over Mabel who didn't look up from where she was aggressively stylizing yet another cat drawing, "Hi Grunkle Stan! You wanna draw with me n' Dipper?"

Dipper glanced up at the sound of his name and instantly shrank back, tucking his drawing under his chest and eyeing Stan warily. Stan ignored him, frowning down at his great niece,

"Mabel, did you put glitter on my cornicorn?"

"Cornicorn?" Mabel finally glanced up at him, "Oooohhh you mean the veggie-tab-le unicorn! Yeah! Unicorns are sparkly, Grunkle Stan! Everyone knows that!"

"I told you not to touch the displays in the Mystery Shack, kid." Stan growled and Mabel's usual smile slipped away. Dipper shifted into a sitting position, looking tense, "That's how I make my money, you can't go messing around with that stuff! It's not for kids!"

"B-but Grunkle Stan--"

"No! Don't talk back to me, kid, I told you to stay out of it!" Stan jabbed a finger at her and Mabel's lower lip wobbled, tears welling in her eyes, "Oh, now, don't go crying on me…! Don't do that!"

Mabel sniffled. And then burst into tears.

In an instant, Dipper was on his feet. He darted over, planting himself in front of his sister, glaring at Stan, chest puffed out and tiny fists clenched at his sides. He sucked in a deep breath and shouted as loudly as he could,

"YOU MADE MABEL CRY YOU BIG MEAN DUMBY!" And kicked Stan in the shin as hard as he could before grabbing his sister's hand and running out of the room.

Stan looked after them, rubbing at his leg, and smirked.

Maybe there was hope for that kid yet.

For now he had to go make things up with his favorite niece. Maybe he'd take them to that puppet show that they put on at the library. Every kid loved puppets.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Wrapped Around](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5282324) by [when_lusii_attack](https://archiveofourown.org/users/when_lusii_attack/pseuds/when_lusii_attack)




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